Patrick Côté, former UFC middleweight title contender, has signed a contract for his first post-UFC fight. He announced his comeback today via Twitter.

Without specifying an event or organization, the tweet mentions a January 31st press conference. This date was announced on Saturday as the day Montreal’s Ringside MMA promotion will be holding such an event to discuss an upcoming April 9th fight card at the Bell Centre. Ringside MMA President Eric Champoux previously confirmed to me during an interview last Saturday that negotiations were ongoing with Côté.

Côté (13-7), had a five fight win streak from February 2007 to July 2008. Four of those victories were in the UFC, including a first round KO of season 3 Ultimate Fighter winner Kendall Grove, and a decision over Renzo Gracie student Riccardo Almeida.

It was enough to get him a shot against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in November 2008. After making it to the third round, Côté’s right knee gave out due to a re-aggravated injury to its meniscus, resulting in a TKO loss.

The injury put the now 30 year old Côté out of action for over a year a half. Making his return at UFC 113 in May 2010, he lost via submission to Alan Belcher, after what some argued was an illegal slam on Belcher’s part. A subsequent match against Tom Lawlor also ended in a loss last October at UFC 121, this time via unanimous decision, and resulted in his being cut by the UFC.

Côté’s fight in April will mark his first fight since being released. An opponent has yet to be announced, though Ringside MMA President Champoux did tell me on Saturday there were various fighters being discussed.